Padova - "The Brain of Italy"

Today, our guide, Jakov suggested that we venture outside the canals of Venezia and head out to nearby Padova for a little squizz.

Padova is famous for a few things... It is knows as "The Brain of Italy", supposedly because of the 800 year old university and for having Galileo Galelei as one of its lecturers.  You know Galileo - the Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution?  Yeah, that one.  He was one busy chap back in the day.  Talk about jobs on!

Our first stop was the Prato Della Valle, the largest square in Italy and the second largest in the world, just after the Red Square in Moscow.  

The piazza boasts Roman origins.  The Romans founded the city of Padova and made this square for military training and gatherings and whatnot.  Later, in the Middle Ages, the square became the courtyard of a church, then a big open-air theatre for dramas and games and even a big market. 

The square is made up of an island, surrounded by an elliptical channel and adorned by 78 statues which portray all the important citizens of Padova.

Today it is still used as a market place for fresh produce and souvenirs stalls.

The most famous of the Paduan churches is the Basilica de Sant'Antonio de Padova, locally simply known as "Il Santo".  The bones of the saint rest in the chapel richly ornamented with carved marbles the work of various artists...

... but I wouldn't know any of this first hand, because I wasn't allowed into the church with my risqué shoulders on display.  A girl with daggy grey tracky bums on withe the crutch hanging down around her knees and a daggy old t-shirt on was allowed in, but apparently I wasn't respectful enough. 

So I sat outside on the ground against the church, which was actually very cool in the shade, and watched the world go by...

(This was my view from the ground)

I watched the hilarious mating courtship of these two pigeons.... the chap on the right was puffing himself up and strutting after the lady on the left who was doing her best to not make any eye contact and just get away from him.

I was, however allowed into the cloisters of the basilica which is where we found this statue of St Anthony, the patron saint of children and finding things as well as being the doer of countless miracles (according to our guide, he performed about a gazillion of them)

The story with this statue is that the baby Jesus is reaching out to him from Heaven and he, in turn is reaching out to whoever wants to touch his hand (notice how gold his hand is from all the touching?) and it means that when you are touching his hand you have a direct line to Heaven.  

(And he was me thinking that my Uncle had the only direct line!)

It's quite a lovely church (from the outside anyway!)  The windows reminded me a bit of the Geraldton Cathedral.

The basilica was begun about the year 1230 and completed in the following century.  The building is HUGE!

We sat down for a drink and the worst sandwich you have ever encountered and we were fortunate enough to catch a few tunes by these very talented gentlemen.  3 piano accordions are clearly better than one or even two!  The bloke at the front has the smallest saxophone I've ever seen, but he held the whole band together with his wailing!  There was also a token tambourine player, but it was his job to collect the money from the audience in his instrument, so he missed the picture.

Our next stop in Padova was the Botanical Gardens - The oldest botanical gardens in the world!

There were some lovely flowers....

And perhaps a few shrubs that needed some attention..... 

Some creative planting styles.....

And lots of insect life.....

It was a welcomed explosion of green in a city of stone and brick.

Including some exotic water plant life....

And Goethe's Palm - The oldest plant in the garden, which was planted in 1585 and became famous worldwide thanks to the interest it aroused from the great German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's.

PALM Sunday at the Vatican

They celebrate with palms;

With reverence bows each holy man,

And chants the ancient pslams.

Those very psalms are also sung

With olive boughs in hand, 

While holly, mountain wilds among,

In place of palms must stand:

In fine, one seeks some twig that's green,

And takes a willow rod, 

So that the pious man may e'en

In small things praise is God.

And if ye have observed it well,

To gain what's fit ye're able,

if ye in faith can but excel;

Such are the myths of fable.

I'm sure they've built this wood and glass structure around it for protection, but I can't help but think of Alice in Wonderland when she drinks the potion marked "Drink Me!"